218 Book of the Black Bass. 



It is to be hoped that experiments in this direction will. 

 continue to be made, until the native gut can be produced 

 fully as strong as the best Spanish gut. If it can be done 

 there is a fortune in it for somebody, for a leader in a 

 single piece of from six to nine feet in length, and as 

 strong as the Spanish gut, will bring a good price. 



An easy way to experiment in the matter would be to 

 collect the fully grown larvae just before they are ready to 

 spin their cocoons, as they are quite plentiful in the central 

 portions of the United States, especially in button-bush or 

 water-sycamore swamps. In order to enable any one to 

 identify the moths and their larvae, the following good de- 

 scriptions are abridged from C. H. Femald (" Standard 

 Xatural History," S. E. Cassino & Co., Boston, 1884, vol. 

 II, pp. 456-^57) : 



The Cecropia silk-worm, Platysatnia cecropia, which has 

 a wide distribution in the United States, is one of our 

 largest moths, expanding six inches or more. It has a 

 most remarkable appetite, feeding on no less than fifty 

 different species of plants, among which are the apple, 

 plum, maple, elm, oak, beech, birch, willow, etc. The 

 female lays from two to three hundred eggs, which are 

 creamy white and striped with reddish, and hatch in eight 

 or ten days. The young catterpillars are black, and change 

 in color and size at each moult until mature, when they 

 are three or four inches long, and of a pale green, or bluish- 

 green color. The tubercles on the third and fourth seg- 

 ments are coral red ; the others on the back are yellow, ex- 

 cept those on the second and last segments, which, with 

 those along the sides, are blue; and all are more or less 

 armed with black bristles. They construct elongated, 

 coarse, dull brown cocoons. The wings of the moth are of 

 a rich brown color, sprinkled with gray scales, with a large 



